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A Brief History of the Laws of War
Attempts to put limits on wartime behavior have been around
since the beginning of recorded history and there have been numerous attempts
to codify the rules of appropriate military conduct.
In the sixth century BCE, Chinese warrior Sun Tzu suggested
putting limits on the way that wars were conducted.
Around 200 BCE, the notion of war crimes as such appeared in
the Hindu code of Manu.
In 1305, the Scottish national hero Sir William Wallace was
tried for the wartime murder of civilians.
Hugo Grotius wrote "On the Law of War and Peace" in 1625, focusing
on the humanitarian treatment of civilians.
In 1865, Confederate officer Henry Wirz was executed for murdering
Federal prisoners of war at the Andersonville prisoner of war camp. He was only
one of several people who were tried for similar offenses.
In fact, it's been the past century and a half that has really
seen a qualitative jump in the degree to which constraints have been placed
on warring parties, and only this century that an international body has been
formed to police the nations of the world.
The first Geneva Convention was signed in 1864 to protect the
sick and wounded in war time. This first Geneva Convention was inspired by Henri
Dunant, founder of the Red Cross. Ever since then, the Red Cross has played
an integral part in the drafting and enforcement of the Geneva Conventions.
These included the 1899 treaties, concerning asphyxiating gases
and expanding bullets. In 1907, 13 separate treaties were signed, followed in
1925 by the Geneva Gas Protocol, which prohibited the use of poison gas and
the practice of bacteriological warfare.
In 1929, two more Geneva Conventions dealt with the treatment
of the wounded and prisoners of war. In 1949, four Geneva Conventions extended
protections to those shipwrecked at sea and to civilians.
The Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property
was signed in 1954, the United Nations Convention on Military or Any Other Hostile
Use of Environmental Techniques followed in 1977, together with two Additional
Protocols to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, extending their protections to
civil wars.
There is no one "Geneva Convention." Like any other body of
law, the laws of war have been assembled piecemeal, and are, in fact, still
under construction.
It is impossible to produce a complete and up-to-date list
of war crimes. Even today, weapon systems such as land mines are being debated
at the highest levels of international policy.
What follows is a basic reference to the most common protections
and prohibitions, as provided for in the four 1949 Geneva Conventions and the
two 1977 protocols.
Copyright © 2003 Maria Trombly. All rights reserved.
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Geneva Conventions:
A Reference Guide
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About the Guide
Alphabetical Index
Introduction
History
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PII
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Image of original document of the first Geneva Convention from 1864 courtesy Kevin Quinn, Ohio, US; licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license
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International Journalism Committee
The International Journalism Committee works to improve and protect
international journalism and encourage the free practice of journalism in all
countries.
For the purposes of this committee, international journalism is
defined as any journalism that involves foreign journalists, that takes place
overseas, or that deals with international affairs.
To improve international journalism, the committee will do some
or all of the following:
— Write articles about international journalism for Quill.
— Put together a panel on a topic related to international journalism at the
annual convention.
— Lend assistance to journalists when they ask for our help, both American and
foreign, to the extent we are able to do so.
— Create resources of use to international journalists and make them available
via the Web, printed guidebooks, or other means to both foreign and American
journalists.
— Find ways to bring foreign journalists to the U.S. and American journalists
overseas for fellowships, conferences, and other educational purposes.
To protect international journalism, the committee will do some or all of the following:
— Draft press releases and letters on behalf of international
journalism or international journalists.
— Lobby Congress in favor of measures that support international journalism.
— Work with other organizations on international projects related to freedom
of speech, freedom of information, and similar issues.
— Act as a watchdog on U.S. government agencies that may attempt to restrict
international journalism.
Are you interested in serving on the committee? Please contact our committee chairs to find out how you can help.
International Journalism Committee Chair
June Nicholson, chair
Associate Professor
School of Mass Communications
Virginia Commonwealth University
901 W. Main Street
Richmond, VA 23284-2034
804/827-0251
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
June O. Nicholson is associate director and an associate professor in the School of Mass Communications at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. She chaired national SPJ’s Journalism Education Committee from 2000-2007 and has been a member of several other national SPJ committees over the past two decades. She is co-developer of the SPJ newsroom training module on covering diverse communities. Nicholson is a former president of the Virginia professional chapter of SPJ and a current board member.
At VCU, Nicholson teaches government, enterprise and project reporting and coverage of specialized beats such as science, health, education, urban affairs and the environment. She also teaches a course on International Media Coverage: The Middle East. She has been a lead faculty member in developing opportunities in the VCU chool of Mass Communications for expanding international initiatives. Before joining the VCU faculty, she was a reporter and editor for some 14 years in North Carolina and Virginia. Nicholson holds a master’s degree in public affairs journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C., and a B.A. degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“I am a member of SPJ because I believe the organization plays a vital role in protecting the First Amendment, free speech and freedom of information in this country.”
Ricardo Sandoval, vice chair
Assistant City Editor
Sacramento Bee
Bio (click to expand)
Ricardo Sandoval is Assistant City Editor at the Sacramento Bee newspaper. He supervises the paper’s environment, science and regional development teams of reporters. Before joining The Bee, Sandoval was a foreign correspondent, based in Mexico City, for the Dallas Morning News and Knight Ridder Newspapers. Sandoval was born in Mexico and raised in San Diego, California. He graduated with a journalism degree from Humboldt State University in Northern California. His career has spanned three decades and has included award-winning coverage of California agriculture, immigration, the savings and loan scandal and the deregulation of public utility companies. His list of awards includes the Overseas Press Club, the InterAmerican Press Club, the Gerald Loeb prize for business journalism and two honors from the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Sandoval co-authored — with his wife, journalist Susan Ferriss — the biography “The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement” published in 1997 by Harcourt.
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